DFW
Having exited the belly of the plane at Dallas, we were particularly looking forward to spending time transitting this airport towards Guatemala. Not! Our anticipation was based on last year’s experiences of the States and their approach to ‘civility’ in matters of border control. First stop the immigration hall. Oh joy!!
After spending ten hours on a plane one would think one would be pleased to stand up for a while, but the souless area of no-man’s land, where your nationality and place in this world are suspended until you get a green light makes you feel like sitting down and curling up. But don’t bother, this would only be construed as insolence!
Edging slowly sideways in yet another QMS, soon it would be our turn to present our fingers to the immigration official. Oh, if only it was that type of finger! But no, this is the index finger of each hand on a glass screen, then a look straight into what could be a web cam, and a polite thanks as we make it through.
Luggage retrieved, it’s now time to go through it all again, but not before ducking outside into the ‘real world’ of Dallas for ten minutes of oxygen.
Making our way back into the terminal to check our rucksacks in, we make it to the desk where we’re curtly told we haven’t been called forward. Silly us. But it turns out it doesn’t matter, since the woman behind the desk is in happy-go-lucky mode, and upon seeing that we already have boarding cards for Guatemala, she doesn’t even ask us any questions about who packed our bags, has anyone asked us to carry anything, are there sharp objects inside, etc, etc. Now, compare that with Dennis back at Gatwick!!! And we’d even been outside. Contradictions, contradictions.
Next stop is security checks, and we know these will be more extreme than anywhere else. We’re not disappointed, although the smell from our feet probably offended many of the people behind us as our trainers got slipped off and plonked in a tray along with pretty much everything else.
We’d read that forms of combustion such as lighters and matches had recently been banned from flights after the Richard Reid incident, but that Homeland Security had even more recently relented to common sense and backed down. Not at DFW though! Just imagine the mountain of lighters and match boxes piled high somewhere nearby!
So, if anyone knows the true situation……..
Tags: Bordering on the ridiculous???
mihai